The Pegasus snooping list seems unending. The latest list to come out figures many industrialists and their lobbyists. It includes the now defunct Jet Airways owner Naresh Goyal, Spice Jet promoter Ajay Singh, considered close to the top BJP leadership, Essar Group’s Prashant Ruia, Aircel promoter Sivasankaran, and Rotomac Pens’ Vikram Kothari and son Rahul Kothari, facing bank cases.
Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani Group’s V. Balasubramaniam and A.N. Sethuraman and Adani Group’s lobbyists’ names also figured in the list. As per the report published by The Wire portal, the top executives of PSUs like GAIL, LIC, Narmada Valley Fertilizer Corporation also figured in the Pegasus target list.
“Apart from Goyal, the most prominent names on the list are numbers used by SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh and the Essar Group’s Prashant Ruia. The list also contains multiple businessmen or officials of companies who have had run-ins with the law over the last few years, mostly due to investigations of loan fraud. This includes Vikram Kothari of Rotomac Pens (and his son Rahul), and C. Sivasankaran, former Aircel promoter and maverick entrepreneur,” said the Wire report.
Former GAIL Chairman BC Tripathi, who later joined Essar Group, two numbers, “one for a former boss of Life Insurance Corporation of India and the other for a former executive director of the Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertiliser Corporation also appears on the list,” said the report.
Though the report named both Reliance Group lobbyists Balasubramanian and Sethuraman, it did not name the lobbyists of Adani Group who were targeted. Dravidian splinter group leaders were also caught on the Pegasus radar. “Naam Thamizhar Katchi’s Seeman, May 17 movement’s Thirumurugan Gandhi, Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam’s K. Ramakrishnan and Dravidar Kazhagam treasurer Kumaresan feature in the list of potential targets of an NSO Group client.